Chatelaine

1870-1900

Measurements

13 1/2 in x 1 in x 1/2 in

Materials

Silver, white metal alloy (chains and clips)

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, The David Wilson Mansion, Inc.

Accession Number

1971.983

Inscription

“MC / 1785 / 1870” is engraved on the belt medallion; “JC” appears on both sides of the pendant attached below.

Condition Notes

See "Comments"

Provenance

Gift of Mrs. E. Tatnall (Mary Corbit) Warner to The David Wilson Mansion, Inc.

Comments

This Victorian dress accessory, called a chatelaine, hooked onto a woman’s dress.  A number of household keys, useful sewing tools, and other items dangled conveniently from it, as women's clothing did not provide convenient pockets nor substitutes, such as handbags.

This chatelaine was owned and used by Mrs. Warner.  She created it from a family pendant of an earlier generation and bearing the initials "JC," likely for James Corbit (1814–1846), who died without issue.  Mrs. Warner had the pendant attached upside down to a clip with her own initials and sympathetic engraving.

Bibliography

Zimmerman, A Storied Past, 219-220.